The massive slide in the capital market during the past few weeks has sent jitters within the investing community. For many, a look at their investment portfolio would give them the impression that the financial goals, that seemed quite achievable some days ago, now appear a distant dream.

Portfolio values have eroded massively after the IL&FS default problem broke out. A market correction can wipe out your investments quickly and drill a big hole in your kitty making your financial goals appear far away. What should you do in such circumstances?

While building a financial plan you would assume a few things. For example, some would assume a 12 percent return from equity funds for 10 or 15 years. Some assume 15 percent rate of return on equity investments for same time periods. But stock markets are not bound by your assumptions. CY2008 saw more than 50 percent fall in key stock market indices. There are time periods when we see large and quick falls. Investors are going through something similar in stock markets. Over past one year mid cap funds lost 11.91 percent and large cap funds lost 1.17 percent. That has made many worry about their financial plans.

Here are some investment moves that can help you partly cushion your investment from the fall in the markets.

Market volatility could lead to a slowdown in inflows into mutual funds, especially in equity funds, as investors become cautious after the correction. Investment through SIP route which has taken up a large part of the equity inflows in the recent past may also reduce. However, there has not been an immediate dip in the inflows, although growth of SIP folios has already slowed down with a fading interest in market-linked investments.

However, is it a good strategy to stop your SIPs at the time of such sharp market correction? Srikanth Meenakshi, co-founder and COO, Fundsindia.com feels that stopping SIPs would be the worst decision an investor can take at this point.

In an interview to Moneycontrol, Meenakshi talks about benefits to mutual fund investors from SEBIs recent circular, investment strategy for short-term investors, advice to investors who have stopped SIPs or withdrawing from equity funds and investing in pharma funds among others. Here are the edited excerpts.

On October 26, 2018, IRDAI (Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India) has proposed significant changes in life insurance policies aiming to give a better understanding of the product, the regulator has set considerable benefits for its policyholders.

In our story, we have a look at these five important changes proposed by IRDAI and understand what they actually mean for you.

The festive and marriage season is well on its way. These are good time to consider giving out a financial gift for the future to your loved ones. One such gift could be a joint life term insurance policy to your spouse. This plan provides the facility of protecting both your spouse and you in the same life insurance policy.

This plan is primarily useful to cover housewives who do not get a term plan easily. Through this feature, a homemaker also gets covered under the same policy as her spouse. The best part is that the cover gets extended to both working and non-working spouse (wife).

No one wants to compromise on the quality of education given to their daughter or son. The rising cost of education makes many worry about the issue and worse fund-crunch make many give up higher education. Here is how to fund your child’s education.

Have you ever been requested by a relative or a friend to become a co-signatgory to a loan that her or she is taking? Co-signing a loan has legal implications that you would carry till the loan is completely paid off. It is often wise to decline such a request, especially for long duration loans such as home loans. Any defaults can lead to repayment burden falling on you.

So, before you plan to sign on bank’s loan application form as a co-signer here are a few key things you need to know.

This week we have reviewed Aditya Birla Sun Life Equity scheme. Launched on August 27, 1998, the AUM of the scheme as on September 30, 2018 is Rs 9419 crore.

The investment objective of the scheme is long term growth of capital through a portfolio with a target allocation of 90% equity and 10% debt and money market securities. It is an open-ended equity scheme which will be investing across large-cap, mid-cap, small-cap stocks. The benchmark of the scheme is S&P BSE 200 Total Return Index (TRI).